Skiing: CU Buffs third after first day of NCAA Championships

CU's Wales second in giant slalom

The NCAA Championships opened Wednesday with the weakest event for the University of Colorado ski team.

Despite that fact, the Buffs are in third place after the men's and women's giant slaloms at the Middlebury Snow Bowl in Hancock, Vt.

"It wasn't exactly our goal, but we survived our worst event today with flying colors," CU head coach Richard Rokos said. "All we were asking was to finish in good standing, finish all six runs and that's what happened. We had very few mistakes overall, and this is a hill that is prone for you to make them."

Defending NCAA champ Vermont holds the lead in the team standings with 227 points. Denver is second (2101/2) followed by CU (1751/2), New Hampshire (1651/2) and Utah (1641/2) rounding out the top five.

Denver's Kristine Haugen won the women's race, going six-for-six in the collegiate giant slaloms she raced in this winter. She finished in 2 minutes, 4.60 seconds. CU's Brooke Wales grabbed second in 2:05.93, earning first-team All-America honors in the process. It was the fourth time this winter the CU freshman finished second to Haugen in a giant slalom race.

In the men's GS, junior Andreas Haug and freshman Henrik Gunnarson led the Buffs, tying for 12th in 2:03.97. Vermont's Jonathan Nordbotten won in 2:03.12.

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